The present invention relates to a vehicle seat, and more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a foamed seat pad having a flat fastener integrated therewith and a seat with the pad resulting therefrom.
Conventionally, a seat such as a vehicle seat includes a pad made of urethane foam or the like and a skin disposed thereon. In order to attach the skin to the pad, a wire is inserted in and formed with the pad, and is fixed to the skin by a mounting hardware such as a C-shaped clip and a hog ring.
In recent years, a novel fastening structure is proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,465 issued Oct. 26, 1999 to Ohno et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,731 issued Apr. 4, 2000 to Matsuoka. The structure comprises a flat fastener including an engagement portion formed on the surface of a belt-like base and having a plurality of engagement protrusions and an embedded portion formed on the back of the base and having a plurality of embedded elements. The fastener is embedded in the surface of a pad by means of molded-in forming. And the engagement portion is engaged with the back of a skin for positioning thereof.
However, the structure wherein a wire is inserted in and formed with the pad, and is fixed to the skin by a mounting hardware needs a number of tools which complicate work, resulting in deteriorated workability. Moreover, metal parts are mixedly arranged in the pad, resulting in not only uneasy disassembly of the pad, but poor recyclability and cost efficiency thereof.
The structure using a flat fastener has the drawback that the fastener can separate from the skin, making positioning of the skin difficult.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a foamed seat pad having a flat fastener integrated therewith, which ensures not only excellent recyclability and cost efficiency thereof, but excellent positioning of a skin.
An aspect of the present invention lies in providing a method of manufacturing a seat pad with a fastener, comprising the steps of:
forming a groove in a mold;
arranging a longitudinal end of said groove;
disposing the fastener on said mold to have a surface of the fastener facing said groove;
curving a longitudinal end of the fastener to protrude in said mold; and
injecting a forming synthetic resin into said mold,
whereby the seat pad is obtained, having said longitudinal end of the fastener embedded in said seat pad.